You should have been here for early Beta. Lasers were full length beams that reached ACROSS the view screen and were WAY overpowered. Personally I liked the way they looked but it was a bit busy from a viewing standpoint. I still liked it.

On Mass Drivers, I agree that the Durantium based rock throwers are over powered for when you get them. If they had a bit more 'inaccuracy' built into them they would be fine. 

Ok reading the title of this post someone needs to make an animated shark looking ship with a laser attached to its head 

I just get a few from trade, if I cant find any.  Elurium Defense shield gives +3 military, so quite nice to put by the hyperion buildings.  Of course, can make a planet invasion proof as well.  For offense, I use it support ships.  I like using beams, just because they look cool.  I'm definitely all in for anyone making shark ships  

The Durantium Driver Spam is a bit OP, tried it once, didnt do it again.  Next game, I do need to try to build a Durantium Refinery on new worlds, to see how well that ends up buffing production, while pop is still extremely low.

That's an interesting point.  There is more elerium available in my maps than yours.  I may rethink some weapons choices.  There isn't an excessive amount of elerium, but with a couple mining techs, I could field some mean beamers in my fleet.  I could at least beef up some of my early all around attack ships.  That would be a big help. 

I end up finding elerium in the big empty spaces on my maps, hidden where there is nothing but nebulae.  That is probably where the map difference is.

I'm a laser boy myself, but mainly because I like how it looks i battle viewer.  Lasers miss too, as do missiles.  The accuracy brings the range and DPM differences together, making a fairly balanced approach to the game.  

Yeah, at the high end Singularity Drivers have much less DPM (taking accuracy into account as well), however you have to kinetic defenses into consideration.  Armor has a terrible defense/mass ratio compared to shields.  Hence, it makes sense on offense that beams have a higher dpm/mass ratio.  IMO its pretty balanced, with the only exception of durantium being such a huge in game resource, and Durantium Drivers pretty much matching the high end singularity drivers.  

 I Have no idea why the devs dont have all resources balanced by DEFAULT.  From an offense and defensive weapons point of view, they pretty much all have the same type of module support abilities.  They all have social building uses as well.  It would make it interesting IMO, as your strategy would GREATLY change based on the resources available. Hence, playing same maps size, same race, same opponents, you would be forced to play differently because of resources.

Balance should be their number one goal.  Then you can tailor it for your owns tastes.  For ultimate re-playability, they should as well have random options for that entire page.

I guess in a general sense that argument could be valid but generalities aren't always helpful in game design.  If every game is 30 durantium and 3 elyrium did we really improve game play by having the imbalance?  Or did we really just make 2/3 of the special weapon options less viable...